John Kerry: Mr. Climate

President Barack Obama’s chief global climate cop won’t be stationed at EPA or on the White House staff. He’ll be at the State Department.

Obama’s choice of John Kerry as the nation’s top diplomat is the strongest signal to the international community — and the smart set in Washington’s political class — that the president is truly committed to striking deals designed to save the world. Add that to his mention of climate change in his inaugural address, and it’s giving hope to greens that Kerry will make climate change a key part of his portfolio at Foggy Bottom.

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Kerry hearing highlights

Kerry has spent years working on the issue in Congress and around the globe. His name was on the last real climate-change legislation, a Kerry-Lieberman bill that never made it out of the Senate. He’s a regular at international conferences, once flying halfway around the globe to spend a few hours on the ground during U.N.-led talks in Bali, Indonesia. And he, like outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will have the ability to explain the world to the Senate and the Senate to the world.

In both venues, Kerry is Mr. Climate. And Obama’s decision to bring the Massachusetts Democrat into the Cabinet struck some administration officials and allies as a bold statement on the president’s climate-change intentions.

“Obviously, he has enormous credibility. I think that’s going to help,” said Phil Schiliro, former Obama White House legislative director. “Combine that with the fact that the president has such a commitment to the issue, and it sends a good signal.”

Still, the nation’s energy picture — and that of the world — isn’t so simple as being for or against more environmentally friendly energy production and consumption. One of the first major energy issues facing Kerry at State will be whether to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline project that would run from Canada to Texas.

Kerry didn’t tip his hand at a hearing Thursday when Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, pushed him on what he’d do on Keystone.

“There is a statutory process with respect to the review that falls to the State Department and elsewhere and that is currently ongoing,” Kerry said. “I’ve already checked into it. It’s under way. It will not be long before it comes across my desk and at that time, I’ll make the appropriate judgments about it.”